How A-POC Able Is Pioneering AI Couture
The S/S 25 haute couture season has hit the ground running. Schiaparelli reimagined modernity with richly detailed wasp-waisted gowns (see: Mona Tougaard’s teeny-tiny waist) and at Christian Dior, down came a lovely flurry of feathers, lace, and crinoline. A chance for couturiers to flex their hand-spun craftsmanship, pedigreed textiles, and ingenious ideas, haute couture week is the supposed pinnacle of human-driven design. That is, of course, until A-POC Able Issey Miyake’s latest collaboration, which asks a bold question: Can couture be designed by an algorithm?
Partnering with design laboratory Synflux, two jackets were designed with Synflux’s AI-powered algorithms, which are titled ‘Algorithmic Couture.’ Harnessing geometry, the technology maps out how to craft clothing with the least possible textile waste. It’s a collaboration seemingly made in heaven. After all, the concept line, short for ‘A Piece of Cloth,’ was introduced by Miyake in 1998 to minimise cloth waste while maximising creative capabilities. Now helmed by Yoshiyuki Miyamae, the collaboration further refines Miyake’s unique manufacturing system that utilises computer programming to create rolls of fabric fused with finished patterns.
The label adopted Synflux’s process to create two sloping jackets, their patterns selected from a vast array generated by the algorithm. Named Strata and Monolith, both blazers are made with a memory foam-like fabric named TYPE-U. Layers of sand and silt that form geological strata inspired the aptly-named Strata jacket, ribbons of fabric resembling the rock striations. Angular cut lines from, well, monoliths, were referenced in the Monolith, featuring more minimalist fabric details. Coming in stony gray and Yves Klein blue, the mouldable fabric allows blazers to be shaped and reshaped to the wearer’s desire.
Okay, so the collaboration might not technically be coming for haute couture, but the concept certainly prompts thought-provoking questions. Perhaps the most pressing is if this be an eventual solution to reducing the fashion industry's appalling amount of textile waste? Hopefully so. It's a stylish step in the right direction.